The drama being played out, in Andhra Pradesh starring ousted chief minister N.T. Rama Rao promises to be a crucial test of democracy. But with the ruling party employing stalling tactics, the battle is bound to be long and bloody.

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Amarnath K Menon

September 30, 1984

ISSUE DATE: September 30, 1984

UPDATED: April 30, 2014 11:52 IST

The role could not have suited the player better. And, in his latest incarnation as a seeker of justice, deposed chief minister N.T. Rama Rao won acclaim all round - except from his sworn political enemies, the Congress(I) and the fragment of the Telugu Desam that split from him. But that battle for justice in Andhra Pradesh last week was proving to be far more difficult than any he has waged with such ease in his 40 years on the silver screen.

Looking tired and drawn after almost one month on the road, taking his case from the national capital to the countryside, NTR had lost none of the determination and self-assurance that marked his rapid rise as a political force.

But this time he seemed unfamiliar with some of the props on the set: the attempted buying and selling of legislators, engineered communal riots and blatant tactics designed to delay the inevitable trial of strength on the floor of the Assembly.

Most of all, a man used entirely to having his way - a characteristic that was in no small way responsible for the disaffection in his party which led to his present predicament - NTR was having to cope with a plot scripted by his opponents.

The issue he confronted was the brutal and unashamed subversion of democratic tradition, a hamhanded attempt to keep him out of his rightful place as the state's chief minister, using a well-planned series of moves each of which was shocking in its crudity.

NTR returns to a hero's welcome in Hyderabad

Clearly, Chief Minister N. Bhaskara Rao had taken on himself an impossible task: how to fulfil his commitment to seek a vote of confidence on the floor of the Assembly within one month of his swearing-in (deadline: September 15), and at the same time buy time to "persuade" the requisite 10 or 15 of NTR's MLA's to switch sides and give him along with his Congress(I) supporters a majority in the 295-seat Assembly. NTR's task: how to keep his flock of 163 MLA's intact and safe from marauders of the opposing camp.

The assault on the NTR camp was well coordinated, planned with cunning, using all the power of the state available to the chief minister and his fellow usurpers. At fortnight's end the effort was: how to delay the Assembly in taking up the looming confidence vote.

The man central to this dilly-dallying, pro-tem speaker M. Baga Reddy, who resigned from his post on September 13 in a move seen as still further pre-planned delaying tactics, is the only member of the house to have been elected without break since its inception in 1956. That, however, was just one of his distinctions. Baga Reddy was election agent for Mrs Gandhi in the Medak parliamentary constituency which returned her to the Lok Sabha in 1980.

Less illustriously, he was a central figure in a cement scandal discussed threadbare in the Assembly almost exactly two years ago. Although absolved by the then chief minister, Bhavanam Venkataram, Baga Reddy was investigated by the Anti-Corruption Bureau during T. Anjiah's term for having endorsed a request from the Andhra Pradesh Builders' Association for an extra allotment of some 7,000 tonnes of cement. Baga Reddy was then industry minister, and his instructions to the director of industries on this matter were the subject of a furore in the Assembly.

NTR's MLA'S after Assembly session on September 11

Baga Reddy declined to comment on the issues coming up before him beyond saying: "My job is to make sure the rules of business are followed and to act with discretion whenever called for by the rules and conventions of legislative practice."

In spite of that, his handling of the Assembly session left NTR - and the high-powered group of observers from the national opposition parties in Hyderabad for the trial of strength - less than satisfied.

At first, Baga Reddy declined to meet the politicians led by the Bharatiya Janata Party's Atal Behari Vajpayee and the Janata Party's Chandra Shekhar. The politicians finally talked to him on phone from the governor's residence the evening before the Assembly session. Their demands, that NTR's men be allowed to sit as a group and that the speaker guarantee that the business of the house would be completed in one day, were both more or less turned down.

The governor didn't make things smoother for NTR either. Instead of summoning a special Assembly session only to test Bhaskara Rao's majority, he called for a normal session thus clearing the way for MLA's opposed to NTR to raise all kinds of extraneous issues to delay the trial of strength. That fitted, ultimately, with the sort of tactics adopted by MLA's supporting Bhaskara Rao.

For three days, ministers and MLA's from the government camp - barring its Congress(I) supporters - refused to allow the proceedings to continue, giving Baga Reddy the opportunity to abandon sessions. On the first day the sitting was aborted when smoke rose from beneath one of the benches and some members resorted to fisticuffs.

On the second day it was aborted after pandemonium broke out, this time because some MLA's led by Majlis leader Salahuddin Owaisi - who later became pro-tem speaker - demanded a discussion on the incidents in the city, a matter which was not on the agenda. When they failed to have their way, they were joined by some ministers led by T. Jeevan Reddy in yanking out microphones and attempting to uproot tables. On the third day there were repeated unruly scenes till the speaker announced his resignation.

That all these were dilatory tactics was soon clear to the NTR camp, but they chose to remain restrained, "We wanted to convince everybody that we are the silent majority till we are allowed to prove it in the House.'' NTR did in fact make one attempt to prove his majority when he paraded his 163 MLA's before the governor on September 12.

There were also accusations that MLA's from the Bhaskara Rao camp had offered large sums of money to NTR's people to switch sides while they mingled in the Assembly. One MLA told newsmen he had been offered Rs 10 lakh.

Scenes of the orchestrated violence in Hyderabad last week: Sordid drama

All indications were that Bhaskara Rao was caught in a whirlwind blowing him day by day closer to disaster. But the Assembly fiasco was only the latest, most desperate of moves to stave off the inevitable collapse.

Unable to reach NTR's MLA's ensconced in the sanctuary of Karnataka, the Government tried the next best thing - to get through to them on their journey back to Hyderabad for the September 11 Assembly session. When NTR, riding the ungainly Chaitanya Ratham in which he campaigned his way to victory in the assembly elections, led his MLA's towards Hyderabad for the session, the police halted them 15 km outside the city at Gaganpahad on the plea that there was a curfew in the city and the MLA's would have to go to the police control room to obtain curfew passes.

It was a crude attempt to delay the legislators and prevent them from heading for the sanctuary of NTR's Ramakrishna Studios. And, it must have been an ignominous experience for NTR to have to plead with mere police officials to allow him and his MLA's to pass.

But NTR was not unprepared. Accompanying the caravan were not only journalists, there were opposition leaders like Karnataka Information Minister M. Raghupathy and a People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) group whose presence as independent observers played a part in thwarting government designs.

The stalemate continued for a couple of hours, both sides adamant. Then Raghupathy, asserting his rights as a state minister, unfurled his standard and ordered his driver to ignore the police cordon. After initial hesitation, the police demurred - and saluted the minister as he moved off. The tension broken, the police caved in and allowed the caravan to move into the city.

In a statement, the PUCL team declared: "We have never seen a more blatantly partisan use of the police to interfere with the legislative process....The police deliberately tried to intimidate the MLA's so that they could precipitate an incident in which they could take further steps."

The police's excuse was, of course, the curfew slapped on the city in the wake of communal killings the previous day. Hyderabad, once a city proud of its communal harmony, has been torn by communal killings in the last few years.

But it has yet to see anything as obviously planned as the arson and looting that occurred on September 9, as a procession bearing colourful Ganesh idols for immersion in the city's Hussain Sagar wove its way through the old city and Abids Road, the main shopping street in the new city.

Apprehending trouble in the Muslim dominated areas of the old city, around the famed Charminar monument, the police was out in strength. But the trouble this time was carefully planned, and the police were caught flat-footed.

In an obvious move to create communal tension and provoke retaliation, small bands of youth fell on selected shops and restaurants owned by Muslims and set them on fire. "They had some chemical which they used," said the owner of a wrecked bookshop surveying the charred metal that was all that remained of his shop and three others next to him.

Indeed, the burning was skillfully done: total damage to the shop concerned and very little to the neighbouring establishment. Suresh Kumar, a watchman of a textile shop in Abids Road, said: "Five or six men armed with iron rods and two tins of petrol or kerosene broke the lock, ripped open the shutters and set fire to the cloth. When I tried to call the police, they moved away." Added M.A. Lateef, owner of a small chemicals shop: "The fire brigade took more than 90 minutes to come by which time everything was destroyed."

The scene was devastating. Owners of shops burnt down stood as if stunned, not knowing whom to turn to. A petrol pump owned by an MLA went up in flames as did the state khadi emporium for good measure. Ominously enough, most of the targets lay along a four km stretch of road which has never seen any communal incidents. The raiders shops not identified by name or script but known to be owned by Muslims were burnt. The arson and loot was over in a mere half an hour, but the terrible damage was done.

At least five people died in stabbings that followed in retaliation the same day. Two days later, when curfew was relaxed briefly, one was killed on police firings and more in stabbings, bringing to 20 the number dead since the arson, and to more than 50 the number of people who have died in violence after NTR's dismissal last month.

The tension was palpable not only in the curfew-bound Charminar area, it was on the faces of people taking advantage of a break in the curfew along Abids Road as well. In one incident observed by India Today, a whole road full of people suddenly panicked for no reason, picked up their bicycles or belongings and ran off in all directions. There was bedlam for a few moments till it became evident that nothing was happening.

Bhaskara Rao and Baga Reddy: Parody of politics

The killings and arson - all obviously planned methodically - gave the Government an opportunity to batten down the city. Curfew was immediately slapped on the city.

The Assembly session thus opened on September 11 far from the public gaze. No matter that a few thousand people defied the curfew and poured onto the streets when NTR, again riding his ratham, drove to the Assembly at the head of a convoy of buses. The curfew enabled the police to cordon off the entire assembly area and prevent anyone other than MLA's from getting anywhere near it.

The Government's reaction to the arson and killings was predictable. Addressing a press conference, Bhaskara Rao virtually accused NTR of having engineered them and said the Telugu Desam leader was harbouring Naxalites in his studio. "What an irony," declared the chief minister who has still to prove his majority," NTR who was preaching rudhir viplab (bloodshed) till yesterday, is preaching Gandhism today after he has lost the battle."

On September 11, police raided NTR's house even as the Assembly was meeting for its first brief session, and allegedly recovered weapons which included wooden sticks and iron bars. Some 22 members allegedly of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) were said to have been apprehended, and there was a clear innuendo when the chief minister declared that the MLA's were not above the law and that "the law will take its own course".

None of the tactics were, however, getting Bhaskara Rao what he sought: a majority. So the efforts to delay the showdown were doubled. Hyderabad is simmering for more reasons than one, not the least because of the charade that was enacted in the Assembly behind the protection of the curfew which also effectively prevented the truck-loads of NTR supporters who would otherwise have descended on the city.

The entire episode has, however, proved once again that as an individual NTR continues to command staunch personal following throughout the state, and that his political future is unlikely to be sealed in closed-door assembly sessions.

Even as his MLA's were camped in Karnataka, NTR was taking his case to his people. Beginning on August 25 from Vijayawada, considered the state's political capital, NTR meandered through Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore, Chittoor and Anantapur districts in his ratham.

Going on to Bangalore and Madras before traversing Medak just before the Assembly session, NTR ignored his doctor's advice to rest after his cardiac surgery and launched himself head first into the most important campaign of his political career.

People panicking in Hyderabad during a break in curfew: Mounting tension

As in his election campaign in 1982-83, he would perch atop the specially fitted 42-year-old Chevrolet light and dark green van, reaching out to the electorate. It was a repeat of the 1983 performance - skilled and to the point. Public addresses, songs from his films, the distribution of cassettes, the long and difficult 18-to-20-hour days - they were all there, whether in the temple town of Tirupathi or in arid Anantapur.

Old men and women and children waiting for hours for election rallies, uttering wishful prayers for his future. Garlands and aratis, heaps of marigolds and chrysanthemums, bananas and apples, packets of biscuits and coins - the offerings were made in abundance. Said G. Venkataramanappa, a farmer in Mulakalachervu: "We will take revenge at the next election."

That, after all, is what the battle boils down to. NTR has his personal charisma, his still undimmed popular appeal, MLA's keeping him company on the ride into Hyderabad were warned by common folk along the way that they would desert him at their peril.

The message was clear: NTR's dismissal had unleashed a popular revolt against his dismissal. Bhaskara Rao's appeal was more basic: rewards, of the kind given to the 20 he made ministers and 14 heads of public corporations.

None of this will last, of course, if Bhaskara Rao fails to pass his assembly test. Knowing this, the Congress(I) sent in some big guns to help him out. Industry Minister Vijayabhaskara Reddy and former chief minister J. Vengala Rao have been working overtime. The Congress(I) strategy was to save face on the floor of the house by demonstrating that Bhaskara Rao did, indeed, have the 91 MLA's he claimed when former governor Ram Lal dismissed NTR.

One school of thought believes that the entire handling of the Andhra Pradesh affair has been a disaster and to salvage the Congress(I)'s prestige, it is necessary to restore NTR to office and heap the blame on former governor Ram Lal and Bhaskara Rao.

But more powerful are those who argue that the Congress(I)'s interests will be best served under President's rule. The pressure is beginning to hurt: the desertion of Congress(I) MLA Palakonda Rayudu is one instance.

That apart, it is now clear that the Congress(I) was in search of immediate gains to help it cross the next hurdle: the Lok Sabha elections. But that short term gain is likely to be nullified in the long run. After all, the NTR sweep last year was a protest against the manipulation of Andhra Pradesh and its affairs and leaders from Delhi.

What is happening now is likely to strengthen that mood of protest manifold. Andhra Pradesh may well rebound on those who chose to destabilise its legally elected government.

MYSORE: UNDER SIEGE

NTR with loyal legislators at their Mysore retreat

The site could not have been more appropriately named: Paradise Hotel. For the 158 guests in residence last fortnight, nothing was too much, or too little. Free liquor and food in five-star surroundings, 24-hour video films, conducted tours, unlimited longdistance phone calls and security guards outside every room.

But then, for the five-star Dasaprakash Paradise Hotel in Mysore, these were no ordinary guests. Collectively, they symbolised the life-line between their host, N.T. Rama Rao, and his desperate bid to recapture the chief minister's throne in distant Hyderabad.

Despite the lavish hospitality, the pampered residents wore an air of uncertainty and tension. Most were clearly concerned about whether they had backed the wrong horse. But even if they were, there was little they could do about it.

The plush hotel resembled a fortress under seige for the 15 days that the legislators stayed under its gilded roof. In the corridors and lush grounds of the hotel, Janata Party and Telugu Desam volunteers kept their eyes peeled for agents sent from Hyderabad to try and bribe them into defecting to the enemy camp with offers reportedly as high as Rs 20 lakh each.

The two prominent agents sent, former Telugu Desam state committee member Papeshwar Rao and Narsing Rao who was sacked from the NTR ministry last February for allegedly accepting bribes, were promptly detained, verbally abused and sent packing.

There were other safeguards in evidence. Two police vans stayed parked in front of the hotel and another guarded the rear. Even if determined emissaries from the Bhaskara Rao camp had evaded the policemen, they would never have got past the fierce-looking K.V. Narayanarao, MLA from Sirpur, who prowled the hotel lobby till the early hours of the morning.

The presence of plainclothes policemen posted at strategic corners was an added deterrent. But the security precautions were not so much for keeping the enemy out as it was for making sure that none of the guests succumbed to temptation and decamped.

However inviting the surroundings, two weeks' absence is a long time for MLA's, specially with elections round the bend. Consequently, a select group of 50 MLA's, the most loyal members of the group, were allowed to visit their constituencies for a few days. But even among the ones who stayed the course, their expressions of support for NTR seemed genuine enough.

Said B.V. Mohanreddy, a Telugu Desam MLA and NTR's personal astrologer: "This is only a temporary setback. NTR's horoscope is very strong." Added legislator Katragadda Parasuna: "Anna is the people's chief minister. Only those with him have a political future. It would have been easy to cross over if I was looking for short-term gains."

Neither, obviously, was NTR. The cost of keeping his dwindling flock in good humour at Paradise Hotel was approximately over Rs 6 lakh. But if he does manage to recapture his throne, it will be a small price to pay for the privilege of playing hero once again, this time in real life.

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